Over the past 4 decades, the republican party has built up this conservative Christian worldview that has gotten more and more out of touch with reality. The right retreated from the public square as we knew it, claiming mainstream institutions had a "liberal bias" (rather they had a liberal worldview that conflicted with theirs), and started building alternative media institutions that led to them radicalizing.
That said, through the 1990s, 2000s, and 2010s, these guys have just gotten more extreme. And I feel like the fundamentalist christian worldview explains where a lot of these guys are at. They've become zealous for a cause and pushing their ideology. And they tend to project a lot of faults that aren't there on other ideologies.
As we saw, they kind of treated the more liberal ideologies as more a multiheaded hydra than as distinct ideologies in political terms, conflating them and acting like they're part of the same beast than distinct entities. They seemed to project the failures of Marxism-Leninism on postmodernism and secular humanism, acting like all left wing ideologies will ultimately be subject to the same flaws as they collapse under the weight of moral relativism and utopian ideals that don't work.
But, as we know, this is fundamentally untrue. Not only are the conservatives completely off base, but they dont properly understand the left. They are basically falling for old school red scare tactics, where they accuse anything they don't like of being "communism."
My own ideology is an attempt to counter this, claiming that secular humanism and moral relativism isn't that bad, and using reason and evidence to push for a utopian vision of America that can actually work. I WANT to fight the right on these terms, and I believe we're to the point where the center of gravity of the country is shifting in our favor. As I discussed previously, back in 2012, the narrative of the coalition of the ascendant was dominant, and the narrative basically suggested that conservatism was on borrowed time. It primarily appealed to old white men, with the majority of the country shifting away from that toward the left. It seemed in 2016 the time had come, but things just never turned out right...
Rather than fight the right on their own terms, pushing for a battle of worldviews where the left stood for a worldview based on reality and making the world a better place, postmodernism ended up being the dominant ideology of the left instead.
Bernie and Hillary really did have different worldviews. Bernie was a mix of humanism and marxism, with the more destructive elements of marxism stripped out of his platform. But Hillary basically ran on post modernism, pushing political correctness to the forefront to combat Trump's abrasive anti PC attitudes. This led to a culture of fear on the left in which many demographics on the left were brought together by identity politics, with intense pressure put on a lot of people who hated this framing to conform or get the crazies.
And the crazies won. because political correctness is not popular in america. While postmodernism might succeed among the left at large due to its diverse coalitions and moderation on economic issues, it is alienating to many people, including independents, leading to Trump winning. The momentum on the culture wars shifted. Rather than being a battle between christianity and humanism, it became this weird left wing version of the red scare where everyone the left didn't like was a "nazi". Postmodernism became a religion on the left, and anyone who didn't conform was relentlessly tarred and feathered. Antifa became a thing. They talked about punching nazis, cancel culture, etc. And this generally just gave the right power. Because as we know, a big motivator of right wing voters is the backlash effect. As the left tries to push these crazy unpopular value system on people, it just causes people to join the right.
While I believe the left can win a fight of christianity vs humanism, it struggles when suddenly the left is tilting at windmills screaming about racism, sexism, and -phobias.
Now to be fair they're not completely tilting at windmills. Trump was flagrantly appealing to a lot of groups as part of his anti political correctness campaign, but heres the thing, THE VOTERS LOVED THAT. While trump overdid it, I believe the majority of people are tired of stuffy moral policers trying to tell people what to do, and like someone who tells them no.
Being a humanist, I almost have to respect Trumps hustle there. Because my own ideology is very pro free speech, as it is based on free thought. You don't think I was a really obnoxious blasphemer in my atheist days? Of course I was. I had the same screw your feelings mentality trump did. Except I'd "own the right".
Heres the thing, on culture wars, I feel like the people fighting against the other side trying to force their values on people is a good thing. I think it's a good thing for the left to tell the right they need to keep their BS religion out of government. I think it's fine to be subversive to religion, especially conservative religion. I think it's fine to tell them off on issues in which they try to morally police and push their ideas on others. My whole perspective is one of subversiveness toward moral policers. And for a while, I feel like the left was able to use the same backlash effect vs the right and win. And then rachel maddow would come around, tell everyone that we live in reality, and conservatives better join it.
That was the left that won in 2012.
But this post modernist left causes the energy to go in the other direction. Because no one likes these stuffy moral policers who bully people into agreeing with their perspective. My secular humanist perspective helped me value free speech. Now the left says "free speech has consequences", imply that people should be punished for expressing their views freely. How can the left succeed in such a stifling environment? Well, they can't.
Anyway, here's a big problem with both sides too. WHen they tlak like this, theyre talking past each other. My ideology addresses the accusations the right heaps on us directly. That our moral relativism and utopianism will be the end of us. That we are basically all marxist leninists who want what happened in the soviet union to happen here. THose are tankies. Tankies are a ridiculously small minority. Almost no one really believes in that crap. And you know what? A better world is possible, and we should fight for it.
But then you got the left, screaming about racism and sexism and crap. Now to be fair, are there racists among republicans? Yes. Dog whistle politics is a thing, and beyond that, yes most white supremacists are trumpers. BUT....are most people white supremacists. Well, it depends on how you define it. Are most people neonazis or okay with them? No. Nazis and actual white supremacists are a tiny percentage of the population. But, postmodernists want to act like racism is the biggest issue in the country. Sadly, that might become a self fulfilling prophecy. if racism wasnt focused on, racists would continue to be a minority of the country. But if anything I feel like postmodernism creates a backlash effect that causes many right wingers to be unwitting supporters of it, because they are anti PC. THe right really hates political correctness. And it creates a backlash environment. And the right is, in my opinion, gaining ground.
This is a bad issue for society to be polarized around. Because it just makes the issue more salient, it makes it more contentious. if the issue were left alone, racists would happily continue being a minority of the country both sides universally condemn. Christians dont like racism, for example. We're all god's people after all. But, if christians have to take a side between moral policers from the left and racists, guess who they side with?
It's kind of like how when christians accuse the left of being marxists it actually led to bernie to run as a socialist and actually do quite well. I believe he could've won 2016. And that would have destroyed the right as we knew it. Seriously, if bernie won in 2016 and was able to enact his agenda, it would've been game over for the right. They wouldve lost the country for a generation. But instread now the left is making mistakes and blowing it, actually breathing life into a dying movement and bringing it back from the dead.
Honestly, it may or may not be too late. Due to the actions of both parties in 2016-present, we might be stuck fighting a race war no one wanted but was forced on us.
Never mind the fact that the actual accusations of fascism are largely a strawman. Almost no one in america is outright fascist. Many are susceptible to it, but they themselves are good people who dont know what theyre doing. Human psychology is such where good people can quickly become authoritarian in the right conditions. But as long as they dont come along, it never happens. What happened in Nazi germany can happen here, but only under the right conditons. And sadly, I feel like we are on that track, but mainly because of the rise of trump and the postmodernist movement. Its a harmful framing for American politics.
Generally speaking, I think we should understand that push comes to shove, most people arent actually fascist. Its an accusation thrown around, but it's like "communist". A meaningless buzzword from a bunch of hyperbolic moral policers trying to portray their opponents as extreme. Just like how the right accuses the left of communism.
Honestly, the left and right have a lot in common with each other despite different belief systems. Both are moral policers who want to force their crazy systems on people, and both accuse their opponents of being some strawman version of the other extreme. And thats not a good way to view things. Push comes to shove, I believe most people are good people. Even if they sometimes have misguided ideals. Now, that's not to say we can't criticize or fight against those ideals, but I believe we're too quick to demonize our opponents. No, most right wingers aren't literal nazis. At worst they just fundamentally reject critical theory and all sociology when you really think of it due to their conservative christian worldview. Racism to them isnt about systems. Its about individuals with prejudices. And they regret being called the term. To be fair, critical theory is a valid way to view the world (in moderation, something postmodernists dont have), and sociologically their ideas have validity, but honestly, the downside of the postmodernist worldview is that if you make it your defining ideology you start seeing malice when it isn't even there and ascribing motives to people that don't really exist.
THe same goes the other way. Christians think anyone who isnt them is godless and evil. And you can be good without god, not having a sense of objective morality doesn't translate to wanting to kill people for craps and giggles, and because social sciences have validity, and only crazed ideologues who deny reality actually get in mindsets conducive to that on a mass scale. Secular humanists at least are generally moderate enough they base their views on reason and evidence, and are much less dogmatic than other ideologies. I dont deny there is danger with marxist leninists, and even to some extent post modernists with the "bash the fash" talk, but its not godlessness that leads to that kind of political violence, its tribalism and fear of the other.
I mean, if forward didnt do such a complete and utter betrayal, I would be plugging them right now. The ideas of fact based governance, human centered capitalism/UBI, and grace and tolerance are exactly what we need. We need reality based policies, utopian ideas that can actually work, and to be tolerant of people who dare disagree with us. Not to say we cant disagree with people, just that we shouldnt dehumanize them or act like theyre such a threat we justify violence against them.
And honestly, both the right and the left have it wrong right now. Both are insane moral policers who wanna push their crazy ideologies on people and sanction those who disagree with them. And both are just as wrong as the other in that sense.
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